1.2.9-Sarah1281
Brick!Club 1.2.9 New Troubles Oh, the beginning of this chapter with the way it makes it clear that Valjean is just so shocked that he was ever let go. I mean, after nineteen years it’s perfectly understandable but he must have known when he’d be released (at least in general terms if he didn’t know the exact day) and yet he still couldn’t quite believe it. Now I’m picturing him waiting as the date of his release slowly approached towards the end and being so nervous and hopeful but also unable to truly believe it. And he just expected that, after suffering for so long and having thoroughly paid any and all debt to society anyone could possible expect of him, he’d be able to just get on with his life. He wasn’t expecting to live in a grand house, here, he just wanted to get back to being an honest man and a laborer. I wonder what would have happened if he had been allowed to slip back into society. He still had his vengeance plans and we see how casually he can lie and take money from people but what if no one had cared that he was a convict and didn’t set out to turn him away from everywhere? I know it’s not realistic to expect that, especially back then but I’m curious if he would have really been able to stick to being an honest man if he had. I feel like he would have accidentally and unthinkingly screwed it up by stealing again but that it wouldn’t be something that he really chose to do but one of those unthinking bits of evil like what compelled him to run in the first place when all reason told him to stay (not that that was *evil*). I wonder how much better life on the outside was for Valjean. It was clearly terrible but he’s not getting attacked and has much more mobility even if his path was predetermined and he’s rejected from everywhere. It’s an improvement but not much of one. It does make sense that if he’s paid by the day or hour or whatever that he not be paid on days he does not work even if he was forced not to work then. I wonder how he forgot to calculate those. But it is definitely ridiculous to tax prison earnings, especially to the point where he lost over a third of what he was due. Even if they had taken the time to explain to Valjean why he had less money, he’d probably still consider himself robbed. I wonder that at Grasse apparently no one realized he was a convict until the gendarme who was trained and experienced in detecting criminals stopped by since he had literally just gotten out of prison the day before. He was probably the best damn worker the man who hired him ever had. Why did the gendarme demand to see his papers if he was just going to walk on by afterwards? Did he suspect this was an escaped con? Did he just want to make sure that everybody knew so that they could be asses to Valjean? It’s stupid that he was paid less since being a convict has nothing to do with the going rate but of course there was no recourse. I don’t understand why the owner threatened him, though. I mean, is he saying that if Valjean doesn’t just accept it and leave he’ll lie to the police and get him arrested again? Valjean protesting he is not paid what other men are paid doesn’t seem like it’s breaking any laws or would get him arrested unless the owner lied. But I suppose he might have paid Valjean nothing so there’s that. Although I seem to recall that he said he was paid twenty-five sous earlier. Maybe he stole the other ten? I find that easier to believe (despite his being a terrible thief) than people translating the exact same number (whether fifteen or twenty-five) two different ways since numbers are not subjective. And then he gets to Digne and is still so strangely optimistic and accepting of his being turned out. At least in prison he had the hope of one day leaving and returning to society. Now he has no hope whatsoever except maybe of not going back to prison. I’d like to think that the bishop at least gives some more sermons about being kind to the oppressed in the future since clearly these people need a reminder. Commentary Pilferingapples Darn it, when I started re-reading this I SPECIFICALLY TOLD MYSELF I’d be more careful to keep track of numbers. Thanks for spotting that oddness! It’s been remarked before that Valjean doesn’t seem to ever really grasp how money works; perhaps that’s because money in the LMverse shares the same strange numbermorphic powers as Enjolras’ age?:P